miércoles, 30 de diciembre de 2009

The Green Slime

This is one of the most ludicrous science fiction films I have ever seen. A Japanese/American co-production, the story involves a group of top astronauts who go onto a meteor to blow it up, since it’s on it’s way to a head-on collision for Earth. Believe it or not, the way it’s handled here is better than the way Michael Bay would handle the material in Armageddon. After destroying the meteorite, it turns out that there was an alien slime that has attached itself to the ship and it’s feeding on electricity, not to mention giving birth to some really grotesque-looking creatures with some of the weirdest screams in monster movie history. It’s up to our Ken and Barbie-looking heroes to destroy the menace before it’s too late.

The American connection is definitely shown in the movie’s actors. Robert Horton and Richard Jaeckel play our leads, and try in vain to upstage each other in showing which one of them is more heroic. It’s too bad since both actors have very impressive resumes, particularly in the acting department, appearing in many westerns and genre efforts. However, neither of them are very credible and are not very good at being able to come off as intimidating or heroic. Italian beauty Luciana Paluzzi is very good eye candy, but can’t really act here either, which is too bad since she’s very good in exploitation movies like 99 Women and Tragic Ceremony.

Most of this must have come from a lack of communication between the multi-cultural cast and the director, Japanese Kinji Fukasaku. Fukasaku was a pretty good director and his last film was his masterpiece, Battle Royale, but this movie is nowhere near as good as that futuristic child-killing masterpiece. We do get to see some good use of Japanese special effects, as there are many cool rocketships and space stations that, although they look like a model, they certainly have a lot of charm. If you like Godzilla movies, then you know what I’m talking about. The Green Slime monsters are also pretty cool, with their long tentacles and electric powers, and have one of the most interesting cries in monster movie history. So yes, this movie has it’s faults, but it’s also very entertaining, and for many of us, it holds a special nostalgic place in our hearts. It’s better than Armageddon, I promise.